151751-Najiba-Chargi

384 CHAPTER 19 The association between sarcopenia and frailty could possibly be improved when a combina- tion of skeletal musclemass andmuscle function, examined with handgrip strength, is used to assess sarcopenia. 13 The aimof this study was to examine the association between sarcopenia, defined as reduced handgrip strength and loss of skeletal muscle mass, and frailty screening, as assessed by the G8 questionnaire in older adults with HNC. MATERIALS AND METHODS ETHICAL APPROVAL The design of this study was approved by the Medical Ethical Research Committee of the University Medical Center Utrecht (approval ID 17-365/C). All procedures in this study were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research com- mittee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration (Version 2008) and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. All data were handled according to general data protection regulation (GDPR). PATIENTS AND STUDY DESIGN In this single-center retrospective study, older adult patients’ (≥ 60-years old) with patho - logically proven HNC diagnosed between September 2018 and January 2020 records were reviewed. In our clinic, these patients routinely undergo handgrip strengthmeasurement and fill out the G8 questionnaire on their first outpatient clinic visit. Patients were included if they had a geriatric assessment screening (G8), handgrip strengthmeasurement, and had recent (< four weeks) pre-treatment imaging scans (CT or MRI) of the head and neck. This resulted in an initial inclusion of 180 patients. Patients were excluded due to insufficient quality of diagnostic imaging (incomplete imaging at the time of diagnoses (fifteen), presence of artifacts (twelve), no reliable differentiation between muscle and surrounding tissue (three) which impaired measurements of skeletal muscle mass. This resulted in the final inclusion of 150 patients. Relevant demographic and clinical variables were collected from patients’ medical records: age, sex, body mass index (BMI), weight loss in the past six months, smoking status, alcohol use, comorbidity as evaluated by the Adult Comorbidity Evaluation-27 index (ACE-27), tumor localization, tumor type (primary, second primary or recurrence), histology, the TNM stage according to the 8th edition of the UICC tumor classification of malignant tumors and imaging technique (CT or MRI) were scored. DEFINITION OF SARCOPENIA As recommended by the EWGSOP we used the combination of low muscle function, as de - termined by handgrip strength measurements, and low muscle quantity, as determined by skeletal muscle mass, for the diagnosis of sarcopenia. 13